Tag Archives: Common Loon

WILL LOONS NEST ON CAPE ANN?

Last spring and early summer, from the eastern shores of Cape Ann, I repeatedly heard Common Loons calling their hauntingly beautiful yodeling and tremolos. I never recall hearing these wonderfully eerie songs on Cape Ann prior to this past summer. Later in the season, we had what I think was a juvenile, daily foraging off Niles Beach and I was fortunate to capture the young Loon diving for small crabs.

I love to imagine Loons nesting o Cape Ann and just had to know more. Here are some interesting facts learned that lead me to believe we just may someday have Common Loons (Gavia immer) again nesting on Cape Ann!

Common Loons only breed in freshwater, at lakes or ponds that are at least 10 acres. Niles Pond qualifies as a potential nesting site as it is 36 acres. One reason Loons need large areas of fresh water is that their legs are very far back on their bodies and their bodies are unusually heavy. They don’t walk well on land and need at least 1/4 of a mile of open water to take off. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “The preferred breeding habitat of Common Loons is large and small fish-bearing lakes with clear, warm, shallow water, and little or no human disturbance.”

That is not to say they are not good flyers. Once airborne, the Common Loon can reach speeds of 75 miles per hour.

Fish-eating Loons are an indicator species at the top of the aquatic food web and their heavy bones serve them well for deep diving. Because they live so long (20- to 30 years) Loons have been used as an indicator for heavy metals, bio- contamination and acidity.

Loons also dive for crustaceans, frogs, insects. mollusks, and vegetation.

Juvenile Common Loons migrate to coastal sea areas for two years before returning to the site of their origin. Here they will live for three more years until they are mature enough to breed. Part of Loon recovery strategies is to capture very young birds and introduce them to a freshwater lake or pond, sort of tricking them into thinking that is their place of origin. This was successfully accomplished at Fall River. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to try this at Niles Pond?? What ponds in your area of Cape Ann may qualify as a possible nesting site?

I think it would be magnificent if the beautiful calls of the Common Loon were an annual event we all came to look forward to. What do you think?

ROAD TRIP TO SEE THE STELLER’S SEA EAGLE #STELLERSEAEAGLE FEVER!

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This past week I made the trek to Boothbay Harbor to sea the rare Steller’s Sea Eagle. Traveling from Cape Ann to Boothbay, you need a chunk of time, of which I am in short supply, but Thursday on a whim I jumped out of bed and decided it was now or never.

The drive took about 3.5 hours, including a brief stop at St. Joe’s Coffee shop in York for some of their sublime chocolate dipped bennies (beignets). Despite overcast skies and an occasional snow squall, the rugged beauty of the Maine coastline was arrestingly beautiful. Towering pine forests meet rocky shores, along with a dusting of snow covering the ground and the frost-glazed boulders made for a very enjoyable drive.

I drove directly to the Maine State Aquarium (closed for the season), where there is ample parking. Shortly after arriving, the Aquarium was flooded with a troop of avid nature lovers having just come from a resort several miles down the road where they had seen the bird fly in the direction of the Aquarium. About half an hour later, the Steller’s Sea Eagle flew directly overhead, to the opposite side of the harbor from where we were standing, to the Factory Cove area. She/he stayed perched atop one of the tallest pines along the tree line for the remainder of the morning, barely moving. She appeared relatively unfazed by the murder of Crows that harassed her in spirts of activity throughout the morning.

The SSE was situated roughly one to two miles away, which is much too far for my camera to get a good photo. It would have been so interesting to see her up close, to get a better idea of her enormity, but it was wonderful fun to witness all the folks that were there also enjoying a chance to catch a glimpse of this rare phenomenon. The onlookers ranged in age from from toddler to the oldest grannies and I was delighted to see tons of teenagers and college students there as well. There were perhaps 60 people or so at any given time and twice that many coming and going. No one drove to the other side of the harbor to flush her out and rest assured, the crowd of onlookers was so very far away from her location, we weren’t in any way compromising her ability to hunt and to rest. We saw a number of Long-tailed Ducks and Loons and I imagine Boothbay Harbor is providing plentiful ducks and seabirds for a hungry eagle.

Above photo taken by Mark S. Allen on Saturday, January 15, 2022

Photo by Cheryl Leathram

Unfortunately the heater had stopped functioning in my car on the drive to Boothbay so I departed early afternoon. The Eagle was still in the exact same spot when I left the Aquarium.

Steller's Sea Eagle Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 16 of 18

Steller's Sea Eagle Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 17 of 18

Steller's Sea Eagle Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 13 of 18

Steller's Sea Eagle Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 14 of 18

Long-tailed Duck Male and Female Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 2 of 18

Long-tailed Duck Male Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 1 of 18

Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 9 of 18

Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 5 of 18

Our Lady Queen of Peace Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 8 of 18

Our Lady Queen of Peace Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 4 of 18

Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 7 of 18

Tumbler Island Boothbay Harbor copyright Kim Smith - 1 of 1

A note about the Steller’s Sea-Eagle – By weight, the Steller’s Sea Eagle is the largest eagle in the world. SSEagles live in coastal northeastern Asia and breed on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the coastal area around the Sea of Okhotsk, the lower reaches of the Amur River and on northern Sakhalin and the Shantar Islands, Russia. The majority of birds winter south of their breeding range, in the southern Kuril Islands, Russia and Hokkaidō, Japan. Steller’s Sea Eagles prey on fish and waterbirds, including seagulls. See the video below to learn more about “The Story of America’s Rarest Eagle.” Link here to read Maine Audubon’s latest updates.

Cape Ann Wildlife: A Year in Pictures

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My husband Tom suggested that I write a year-end post about the wildlife that I had photographed around Cape Ann. Super idea I thought, that will be fun and easy. Not realizing how daunting and many hours later, the following is a collection of some favorite images from this past year, beginning with the male Snowy Owl photographed at Captain Joe’s dock last winter, to December’s Red-tailed Hawk huntress.

Living along the great Atlantic Flyway, we have been graced with a bevy of birds. Perhaps the most exciting arrival of all occurred when early summer brought several pairs of nesting Piping Plovers to Gloucester’s most beloved (and most highly trafficked) of beaches, Good Harbor Beach. Their story is being documented on film.

Work on Mr. Swan’s film will also resume this January—the winters are simply not long enough for all I have planned!

While photographing and filming Red-winged Blackbirds this past spring, there was a face-to-face encounter with a hungry coyote, as well as several River Otter sightings.

Female Red-winged Blackbird

The summer’s drought brought Muskrats out from the reeds and into full view at a very dry Henry’s Pond, and a short film about a North American Beaver encounter at Langsford Pond. Numerous stories were heard from folks who have lived on Cape Ann far longer than I about the extraordinary number of egrets, both Snowy and Great, dwelling on our shores.
Three Muskrateers
There were few Monarch sightings, but the ones seen thankfully deposited eggs in our garden. Thank you to my new friend Christine who shared her Cecropia Silkmoth eggs with me and thank you to the countless readers who have extended an invitation to come by and photograph an exciting creature in their yard.

Pristine beaches, bodies of fresh water, and great swathes of protected marsh and woodland make for ideal wildlife habitat, and Cape Ann has it all. With global climate change pushing species further away from the Equator, I imagine we’ll be seeing even more creatures along our shores. Butterfly and bee populations are overall in decline, not only because of climate change and the use of pesticides, but also because of loss of habitat. As Massachusetts has become less agrarian and more greatly forested, fields of wildflowers are becoming increasingly rare. And too fields often make the best house lots. Farmers and property owners developing an awareness of the insects’ life cycle and planting and maintaining fields and gardens accordingly will truly help the butterflies and bees.

Thank you to all our readers for your kind comments of appreciation throughout the year for the beautiful wild creatures with which we share this gorgeous peninsula called Cape Ann.

The images are not arranged in any particular order. If you’d like to read more about a particular animal, type the name of the animal in the search box and the original post should come up.

I wonder what 2017 will bring?